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Second Man Charged In Shooting Of 2-Year-Old Girl

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INKSTER (WWJ/AP) — A second person is facing murder charges connected to the triple shooting in Inkster.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office charged Raphael Hearn with first-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to murder and using a firearm during a felony in a Romulus court on Saturday.

Kamiya French was shot in the head Tuesday night outside a home in Inkster. Police have said she was an “intended target” in the shooting that also left her 26-year-old father and a 13-year-old girl wounded.

Police have said the shooting appeared to be retaliation for a shooting in April. Hearn does not have a lawyer and is due back in court on July 16th.

Michigan State Police Lieutenant Michael Shaw explained the torture charge in what police describe as a case of retaliation.

“The child was the intended target and that’s what the torture charge was for,” Shaw said. “His thought process was that he was going to kill the child in front of this guy and then kill him afterwards and so that would be the last thing he sees.”

A witness who was visiting his daughter at a housing complex on Michigan Ave. and Middlebelt the day of the shooting told WWJ’s Mike Campbell he’d gone out to his car for a cigarette when he noticed a white van drive by with three people inside.

The witness said he watched as a man got out of the van, walked across the grass and approached the porch. He said it appeared the gunman targeted the toddler before turning the gun on the other child and the man.

“He shot the little baby point-blank and then he started shooting. I said ‘He’s killing everybody,’ and I just laid down under the car, and he just casually walked away, got in the van and drove off,” he said. “Point-blank he shot the baby and now she’s dead, for no reason.”

The suspect, an Inkster man, was scheduled to be arraigned late Thursday afternoon.